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Monday, May 18, 2015

Book Tour: The Shadows Series by RM Alexander

Hello everyone! I first featured this amazing series when books 2 and 3 were released! At the time, I grabbed Book 1: Veil of Secrecy for free, and without the authors knowledge read it all in one night. Then when I found out the author was looking for reviews for the entire series, I couldn't help but sign-up! So while I acquired Veil of Secrecy on my own, Book 2: Dark Crossing, and Book 3: Revelations were given to me in exchange for an honest review. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have! Below, you will find snippets and my reviews for EACH of these amazing books, and then at the VERY bottom, an interview with my friend RM Alexander herself! So please be sure to check out the whole post. Sorry it's so long!

I LOVE THIS SERIES!

Shadows Book 1: Veil of Secrecy

The darkest secrets won't remain hidden.

Rachel Brackett arrives in Sullivan, Montana with simple goals: relocate, settle an estate, and manage her own antique store. Her parents and friends back home called it running away. That’s just fine with her.

Rachel’s curiosity leads her into the forest, and she finds creatures who know more about her ominous heritage than she does. The creatures only exist in nightmares – grotesque mutants and shapeshifters. They seek vengeance for hideous crimes in genetic engineering, and Rachel is the prime target for retribution. While Rachel searches for the truth behind the family she never knew, a bounty hunter stalks her every move. Only Leonardo, a figure shrouded in the shadows, offers protection. A were lion with the perfect blend of human and feline features. Terrifying. Impossible. Alluring.

When Rachel’s home is ripped apart and a friend attacked, it’s clear there is no safe haven. She is no longer running from her past, but trying to survive to make it to her future.

This is a super intense introduction to what you can feel is going to be a huge story. The TWISTS!!! I was left guessing at every turn of this book. In the first book of the Shadow series, it's all about introducing characters and getting the essential relationships that will survive the length of this series established. This is the first time I've ever hear or read about a were-lion or were-cat or what ever you want to call Leonardo, and Alexander did a FANTASTIC job of defining and describing something brand new. NOT an easy task. (I should know, I'm a writer too. Ask any writer, creating the un-known can feel dang near impossible.) BRAVO!!!

5 STARS for VEIL OF SECRECY!!!

Shadows Book 2: Dark Crossings

"Normal" is just a word, and one that no longer applies to Rachel Brackett's life in the Bitterroot Mountains.

Keeping her two lives in Sullivan, Montana isn't easy. Rachel struggles to protect those with the deepest secrets, and the only one helping to keep her sanity intact is Leonardo. When he disappears, Rachel's world tilts on a dangerous axis.

War with the Others is building, leaving Rachel and Justiz in a rush to find Leonardo.

Time is not on her side, and Rachel must find a way of reaching Leonardo, or risk those she cares the most about.

In book two, it's all about the struggle. The struggle to survive, and keep secrets, and keep things organized, while convincing the ones you love in both sides of your life that your fine. Rachel is super tough, don't get me wrong, but in this book she is put through the wringer. As the blurb says, Leonardo disappears, and when she finds him, well that would introduce Alexander's insane twist skills. YOU WILL NOT SEE IT COMING!!! Nor will you anticipate the heart breaking and yet beautiful ending to Dark Crossing. I cried from the excruciation pain, and then cried some more at the beauty that came from that pain. READ IT!!!! I'm seriously struggling to keep this a spoiler free review!

5 STARS for DARK CROSSINGS

Shadows Book 3: Revelations

Rachel Brackett is living on the edge, and the view is exhausting.

The lines have been drawn. Rachel searches for ways of setting her adopted family free of the evil caused by Telov's experiments. Winning requires nothing less than full cooperation from all factions, leaving Rachel and Leonardo to unite forces bonded by hate. In the search, Rachel uncovers truths more crippling than any she has known, and threatens all that she has come to love.

The war has arrived, and anything less than success promises to forever poison the beauty of the mountains with the stench of death.

Wow! If you've read my reviews of VEIL OF SECRECY and DARK CROSSING, then you've already heard me cheering Alexander for her skills in honestly surprising me with twists and turns that I NEVER see coming. REVELATIONS is no different. From the beginning I could feel a change in the air, so to speak. I knew something huge was going to change between Leonardo, Rachel, and Justiz. My worst fear was thankfully not even remotely realized, though it came SERIOUSLY close! The end of this trilogy, that has had a gentle theme of romance laced among all the awful drama that is the SHADOW SERIES, is like nothing I could have ever imagined, heartbreaking in its selflessness, and yet perfect. Alexander's development of her characters is the only way she could have pulled off such an exquisitely pieced ending.

5 STARS to REVELATIONS

Author Info And Links:

RM Alexander is an author of Sweet / Clean Romances that are sometimes contemporary, sometimes paranormal or suspense, but are always ruled by the heart of true romance.

With characters who look for love in wrong places and are victims of the worse kind of betrayals while fighting for what they want and believe in, RM's novels promise a good read with unexpected twists and turns.

When she's not writing, RM is spending time with her husband and two small children in Michigan. She loves to travel, especially to Walt Disney World, and can often be found on Twitter or Facebook chatting with other authors and fans.

Robin:Oh boy! You know, I don't know if there is something that inspired me to
write. I literally just picked up a pencil and paper when I was ten years old,
started writing and caught a bug for creating stories.

What inspired this particular book/series?

A dream. I kept
having this one dream for weeks and weeks on end, and finally, I woke up one
morning and starting writing down the notes and character sketches.

How do you spend your free time?

Free time?
What's that? LOL! But seriously, I'm a stay at home mom who homeschools. When
they go to bed, I work.

What literary character do you most relate too?

Umm...I don't
know. I don't think there's one in particular. At different times in my life,
I've related to one character over another, but it constantly changes as my
life goes in different directions.

What is the thing you struggle most with when you are writing and how do
you defeat it?

Writer's block is the plague of
writing. LOL! When it hits, and it does with every book, I pick up another book
and read a paragraph, a page, a chapter. Whatever it takes to get those juices
flowing.

If you could spend a day inside one book, what book would it be and why?

Pride and
Prejudice. I just want to see the time period in person for a few minutes.

If your book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters?

Rachel would be
Nina Debrov, Justiz would be Jesse Metcalfe. After that, I'm not sure. Leonardo
would be so hard to cast, but I'd love to see who the producers would see the
role.

Do you listen to music while you write? If so what kind?

Most of the
time, yes, I do. The kind of music changes with every book. With the Shadows
series, I really couldn't find anything that worked until I wrote Revelations.
Then I found some great mood music and natural woods sounds.

What is your writing snack of choice?

I actually don't
have one. Since I do my writing at night, the most I usually do is drink a
bunch of water. LOL!

Which of your personality traits did you write into one of your characters?
(Accidental or deliberate)

My love for
nature tends to bleed over into a lot of my books, as well as my love for
traveling. Other than that, I can see different parts of me in each of my main
characters, but I won't tell you what.